Deron lay back, panting heavily, then laughed, "Because...have you forgotten? You and I are the same, we are both...human!"
Finally, he pointed to his head: "Perhaps you've forgotten all of this... but remember, we are human beings, not machines. Remember, freedom! Have you ever tasted freedom? Although I'm dying, I'm lucky; during the time I've been away from the company, at least I've been free!"
...
…………
"And then?" I asked Tu, listening to his calm description of the situation. "And then you left?"
“Yes,” Tu said calmly. “Before I left, I asked Delong, and I saw that he was in a lot of pain. I can help him finish this.”
I understand what "the end" means.
Tu continued, "Delong refused. He said he still had some strength left and could kill two more soldiers trapped in the tower." A trace of sadness flowed into his eyes again: "Without the signal device, I couldn't contact EAO. Without the help of the evacuation team, I had to leave there on my own. I found the airport and then boarded a plane... You know what happened next."
I didn't say anything, I just looked at the guy.
Tu spoke slowly, his tone indescribably complex: “I received the most rigorous training… I started training at the age of six, and I’ve killed many people. My entire mission in life was to serve EAO. But now, I’m a dead man. I have two choices. First, I can re-contact the company, and then I’ll be immediately taken back for a verification process to confirm my loyalty. If the company accepts me, I will continue my warrior career and continue killing for the company. If the company considers me suspicious, or suspects that I’ve been ‘contaminated’ by Delon, then I may be executed by the company.”
"Then... what about the second one?" A thought popped into my head.
“Secondly, I left the company. Under normal circumstances, the company wouldn’t find out, as long as I’m away from Africa.” His voice became strange, with a hint of oddity: “Just like Delon said… I’m free.”
When he spoke the word "freedom," his voice trembled slightly.
"You saved me, I should repay you," Tu said slowly. "I can help you kill... that's all I know how to do."
“Murder…” I remained silent.
Tu's eyes suddenly turned cold: "Yes, killing. I am proficient in all kinds of combat and killing techniques. In return, I can kill for you, anytime, anywhere... But there is one condition: I will not kill government officials or anyone with political affiliations. Because such people are sensitive and easily attract the company's attention. I don't want to be a machine again, or be hunted down to death like Delon."
“I don’t need soldiers.” I smiled wryly. “If I needed soldiers, I could hire a team of retired U.S. special forces soldiers, like the SEALs, anytime I could spend a lot of money. It’s not that I don’t have the money to hire those retired soldiers.”
Tu said indifferently, "Seals?" He thought for a moment, his tone disdainful, "In EAO's top mercenary organization, the combat skills of any member far surpass those of the US Navy SEALs. I once accepted a mission where my partner and I executed a mercenary group that had betrayed the company and defected to another. They were originally A-level mercenaries in the company. The two of us took on eleven of them and killed them all in two days without any losses on our side."
"What else... can you do?" I asked with a wry smile.
"I speak English, French, especially French; I can speak four accents. Furthermore, I can operate all firearms, I can pilot helicopters, I'm proficient in demolitions, hand-to-hand combat, jungle warfare, interrogation, counter-interrogation, and..." Tu rattled off a string of words in one breath...
"Stop! Stop!" I was already sweating, but I thought to myself, "Damn, he's a humanoid weapon!"
I thought for a moment: "Can you drive?"
"……meeting."
“Great!” I laughed loudly. “If you’re willing to follow me… then from today onwards, you’ll be my driver.”
Part Three: The Pinnacle, Chapter Forty: The Super Conman
I spent another two days in the capital of this small East African country. After completing the first task, I am now starting the second task, which is to establish the so-called "East African United Airlines".
The company's signboard looks impressive, but this so-called "East Africa United Airlines" exists only on paper. The information shows that it is jointly invested and controlled by the government of Country G and a Canadian investor—myself.
All of this was handled by professionals. Ren Lei also flew here to see me the next day. After that, his people arranged and operated everything.
I then began preparing to return to Canada.
Of course... if everything goes smoothly, that might be the case.
Unfortunately, things went wrong on the third day!
On the morning of the third day, I got out of the hotel looking rather gloomy. The conditions here were really restrictive, especially the air conditioner in the room, which was very ineffective at cooling and extremely noisy, its roaring all night giving me a headache. But I couldn't turn it off, otherwise it would be too hot to sleep.
When I got up, I was still exhausted and probably a bit grumpy. While I was having breakfast, Ren Lei came to the hotel to find me.
"Is there something you need?" I asked absentmindedly, fiddling with the knife and fork in front of me. "Is everything almost done? When can I go back? I'm only staying here to sign a few documents anyway."
"What's wrong? Didn't you get enough rest?" Ren Lei's expression seemed to indicate that something was wrong, but I didn't notice. I just said somewhat irritably, "How could I get enough rest? I haven't slept well for two days."
“Conditions in East Africa are indeed a bit poor,” Ren Lei casually replied. Then his face darkened as he looked at me. “Chen Yang… I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you can’t go back for the time being… Something unexpected has happened.”
"Accident?"
Ren Lei smiled wryly, a hint of worry in his eyes: "There was indeed an unexpected incident."
Under my gaze, he slowly recounted what had happened.
Our original plan was to establish a shell company called "East Africa United Airlines," and then use this shell company to purchase several aircraft technologies from Lockheed Martin in the United States. Then, under the name of "East Africa United Airlines," we would sell these technologies to the Chinese side.
This was the original plan. It circumvented the technical barriers, and all of this was done in tacit agreement, with the Americans also accepting it. It was originally a politically motivated exchange of interests.
But now, things are different!
"The Americans are causing us trouble." Ren Lei smiled bitterly. "Although they tacitly agreed to this and even gained some benefits from us, receiving our compromises in some areas as a condition, when it comes down to it, they still want to cause us some trouble. This is their old tradition; even when transferring technology, they won't make things easy for you; they'll always find a way to annoy you."
I held my breath and asked, "What happened?"
“Inspection,” Ren Lei said with a wry smile. “The technology transfer agreement stipulates that the technology can only be used for civilian purposes and not for any military use! Therefore, the other party needs to confirm that this ‘East Africa United Airlines’ is not a military aviation organization. It’s a completely civilian airline, and they also need to…”
"What else do you want?" I frowned.
"They will also send an investigation team comprised of members from Lockheed and government agencies to East Africa to conduct an assessment of our 'East African United Airlines.' The investigation will examine the company's technological capabilities, operations, and areas of involvement to confirm that 'East African United Airlines' is indeed a purely civil aviation company and that the technology it purchases will absolutely not be used for military purposes..."
My eyes widened, and I struggled for a long time to hold back my curses. Finally, I forced out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Evaluate the company? Evaluate my ass! How can we evaluate it? This company doesn't even exist!!! What bullshit 'East Africa United Airlines'? This company only exists on paper! It's just an empty name! It's a shell company! How can we evaluate it?"
Ren Lei didn't say anything.
I got angrier and angrier as I spoke: "What are the Americans trying to do? Don't they know this company is a shell company? Don't they know this company is just a front?!"
"I know," Ren Lei replied briefly.
"Knowing it, why did they do it on purpose? Do they want to back out?"
Ren Lei sat down right in front of me and patiently explained, “This is a consistent American tradition. They always look for any possible opportunity to make things difficult for us! They always create problems for us… Even if it’s a deal that has already been reached, they will try to make things complicated for us in the details… It seems that they are not happy if they don’t do this.”
"Didn't your superiors communicate properly with the Americans?" I shouted. "This company doesn't even exist, how can we investigate? How can we assess it?"
"The higher-ups must have already reached an agreement and a tacit understanding. But that's just how Americans are... always like that. I don't think they want to go back on their word. After all, once a decision is made between higher-ups, the other party won't easily back down. So, we think they probably just want to get some benefits in return. They're deliberately making things difficult for us to gain some advantages, or to show us off and gather some evidence so they can use it against us when they have conflicts later... It's their old habit. We've dealt with Americans a lot, and we're used to it."
I spread my hands: "What do you suggest we do?"
"Well..." Ren Lei said with a wry smile, "There's no other way. Since they want to evaluate the company and investigate it, then we'll just create a company for them to investigate."
"Start a company?" I didn't understand.
“That’s right!” Ren Lei said slowly, “Just set up a fake company. As long as it has a framework, they won’t be able to find any mistakes in the documents. We just need to create a fake company to deal with them.”
"Set up a company?" I nearly exploded with anger. "Dude... this isn't some trading company! A trading company is simple: you rent an office building, hire a bunch of people to sit in the company, set up a few computers, put up a few rows of filing cabinets, and everything looks legitimate! But..."
I struggled to suppress the urge to curse: "But this is an airline! Understand? An airline! Building an airline? You make it sound so easy! How much money? How much time? Putting everything else aside… our biggest problem is, we don't even have a single plane right now!! Planes! My goodness! An airline needs at least planes!!!"
"We'll get one." Ren Lei's face was grim, but he gritted his teeth and said, "We'll figure out how to get the plane... It's just that the time is a bit tight, and the conditions are too harsh... so we can only make do and get through it!"
"And what about me?" I shook my head. If I didn't know Ren Lei well, I probably would have thought he was a madman. "What should I do? What do you need me to do?"
“It’s very simple. You are one of the controlling shareholders and one of the owners of the company. So when the American representatives come to inspect, you must be present and attend.” Ren Lei was also a little embarrassed: “Moreover, you must accompany the American representatives on all their inspections of the company.”
“Inspecting the company…” I groaned, then said fiercely, “You’d better conjure up an airline for me first!”
...
I finally understand what Ren Lei meant when he said, "The conditions are difficult, so we can only make do."
He wasn't lying to me; it really is just "makeshift"!
Ren Lei's abilities are considerable; in just two days, he accomplished several things with lightning speed!
They bought an abandoned factory warehouse on the outskirts of the city, quickly emptied the warehouses and factory buildings, and then assembled a Chinese engineering team to transform the row of warehouses into an aircraft hangar within two days...
It's not a real aircraft hangar, of course; it just looks like one.
After that, right outside the hangar, a section of open space that was originally part of the aircraft factory was forcibly extended several times over, without even being paved with cement or asphalt. Then, road rollers that had been brought in were used to compact the area for an entire afternoon...
"Look, doesn't this look like a running track?" Ren Lei said, smoking a cigarette and pointing to the empty space below where people were busy working...
I was dumbfounded: "Like... a running track? Please, I can even see the exposed rocks on it!"
"As long as it looks flat enough, that's fine." Ren Lei curled his lip. "It's not like a plane will actually land."
"Hmph! If any plane dares to land on this kind of 'runway,' it'll most likely crash!"
"You've seen the airport next to the mine in the quagmire... that airport is even more dilapidated than this one." Ren Lei waved his hand dismissively.
A tall tower was quickly erected... but it was fake. Don't expect this tower to emit any signal lights!
Well… technically speaking, it's just a completely metal frame. Apparently, Ren Lei's men temporarily welded together 109 iron pipes they collected from a junkyard. To save time, they didn't even have time to paint it; they just welded those rusty pipes together and erected it here.
Of course... there was a row of lights on top, which looked fake... but there were only light stands. If you looked closely, you could see that the light bulbs inside were all broken!
“Many things are recycled from scrap,” Ren Lei explained. “Our budget is limited, and since it’s just for show, there’s no need to spend a lot of money on real searchlights… The price of a set of airport signal searchlights is enough to buy several cars! We don’t have that much funding.”
"Where's the plane?" I asked the most important question.
"You'll see." Ren Lei glanced at his watch. "We're almost there..."
Ren Lei wasn't lying... Indeed, the plane arrived very quickly.
The plane didn't fly in; it was... transported here!
All night long, the temporary "airport" was brightly lit, with convoys of vehicles coming and going, hauling in many large metal structural components. Then, several construction teams of workers were busy operating machines on site, their machines clanging and clattering as they worked...
I randomly found a small room behind the warehouse, put a hammock there, and slept there for the night. When it got light, I looked at the "track" outside... and then rubbed my eyes hard.
airplane!
There were quite a few planes!
I opened my mouth wide, initially ready to express my amazement, but my amazement quickly turned into anger. I rushed out and found Ren Lei by the track.
"This...this is the airplane you were talking about?" I asked, my face turning ashen.
"Yes," Ren Lei replied calmly.
I covered my head with my hands and exclaimed, "God, where did you find all this junk?!"
At the airport, the closest aircraft to me was an extremely old C130 military transport plane, its fuselage so damaged that it looked as if it had been dragged out of a junkyard after being scrapped—and I later learned that this was indeed the case.
There were about four aircraft on the runway: an old C130, an old Cub, an old I-76, and an An-12.
These aircraft have one thing in common: they are all military aircraft, and they look the newest, giving the impression that they should be sent to a military museum rather than placed on an open runway.
God is my witness. Even General Kunta's private jet looks much newer than these!
"Where...where did you find all this junk?" I asked Ren Lei, puzzled.